Neurobit is an improvisation project by Bas Welling. He already released stuff on Retinascan, R.O.N.F. Records and Enfant Terrible. The sound is based on minimal suites made using 8bit sounds. Sounding at times a bit experimental or ambient, Neurobit will release on February for Enfant Terrible a tape titled THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Originally, "The War of the Worlds" was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series, Mercury Theatre on the Air, broadcasted on the October 30, 1938 and directed and narrated by Orson Welles. The effect that this broadcast had on people is history, because it caused panic on the audience. On the 6th of April 2003 Bas Welling (then called himself Dj Rioteer) recorded his version of this radio drama on a local Dutch pirate radio. Some tapes were produced and distributed but it was a sort of memory of a performance. Enfant Terrible decided it was time to make it available again, so the next month you'll be able to purchase one of the 100 copies (11 have a Space Invader art object). Musically, you'll find the original recordings of the 1938 broadcast with a sort of experimental improvised soundtrack performed by Neurobit. Analog noises, tiny melodies, bleeps and low-fi electronic effects are the sounds added and even if they aren't catchy per se, the whole project is interesting.

Logosamphia is the musical project of a Netherlander called Sadra Hemati. I already checked his music on the double album compiled by Enfant Terrible, titled "Kamp Holland". On that release, Logosamphia had a track titled "La Hars". It sounded like an electronic twisted melody cool for an Eastern circus. On this new release PASSAGE OMNI, Sadra, changes everything and composed four tracks for a total of about twenty minutes of music, using only an Omnichord instrument. The Omnichord was made in the early 80s by Suzuki and it was an electric harp. It had chords buttons on the left and a pad on the right where you were able to play the virtual strings. It had also some basic rhythms and few effects like the sustain. It had a particular sound and the way it's used on PASSAGE OMNI remember some 70s German ambient music. Melodic, intense and evocative, Logosamphia on this tape did a great work and I'll have to keep an eye on the Enfant Terrible website, because it will be relased on only 60 copies on February.

Hautville are an Italian band formed in 2006 in Ferrandina. Their name comes from the Hautville Normans' family. Some members of that family conquered and politically unified South Italy in the years 1100s. They picked up this particular name to underline their interest into the preservation of their land's history. NUMEN LUMEN contains three unreleased songs ("Apparizione", "In Lode all'Asino" and "Memoria di FelicitÃ ") and a selection of songs coming from the album "No milk for the babies" released on a small Italian label called Invisible Eye records. Musically their music is deeply influenced by Italian progressive rock of the 70s (see the organ parts plus the way they use dissonances or the choruses) but the main instruments they use are acoustic guitars: they sound like a neo folk band deeply rooted into the 70s. On the ten tracks of NUMEN LUMEN, you won't find loud drums or guitar solos but nice melodies and cured arrangements. Most of the tracks tend to create medidative atmospheres that fit really well their lyrics. About the lyrics, they are written in Italian language and talk about tradition and about the eternal voyage the human being started thousand years ago just to understand himself. The album is dedicated to Giordano Bruno, Giuliano Kremmerz ("Otranto" has excerpts from his "I dialoghi sull'ermetismo") and the poet Domenico Bellocchio and it's out now on HR!SPQR.

The leitmotiv of this release signed by the Koln-based trio made up of Matthias Muche - talented trombonist and active media artist -, Philip Zoubek - inventive Austrian pianist, who likes to alter his instrument's timbre...what is known as prepared piano - and Achim Tang - experienced bass and double-bass player whose artistic path is rich of relevant collaborations including the ones with Oskar Aichinger, Wolfgang Pusching and dZihan & Kamien, a notorious duo for jazzy disco and so called downtempo house - seems to be the most antithetical explorations of improvisational music. The decision of leaving their 5 sessions untitled could suggest their will of leaving their music outside any possible conceptualization or "semantics", so that these excerpts could be described just for their tympanic exposition and their style and these three musical voices could sound both fused into sonic creatures which turn them almost undistinguashable and considerably isolated: the amalgamation is quite clear in the first two excerpts, being the first one a sort of 10 minutes lasting tuning where in spite of the slow tonal pitching and slight modulations emitted frequencies rarely emerges from the homogeneous melodic layers and the second an almost disturbing percussive ragbag, a mechanical rattle which sounds so noisy that makes really difficult to isolate each instrument - some of you could jump from their seat for the sudden change of range from almost silent tones to such a clashing noise...some nice spells casted on the mix! -. In the following excerpts, it's easier to appreciate musical individualities - I particularly appreciated Zoubek's prepared piano which is able to evoke some shinto ritual's atmosphere with intriguing damped hits and Muche's gasping blows in trombone's telescopic slides in the third one as well the general performative obliqueness of the fourth excerpt -, before the return to the initial tonal uniformity in the final recording, which seems to close the circles after these musicians opened them in order to cast some spells.

Daniel & Mikael Tjernberg has outdone themselves really with this fine release from Waerloga Records. It's the 19th release for the label and this one might not be a bestseller but it's a rellay good album that deserves some credit.

Chronicle of the Black Monks is a soundtrack for a Swedish historical movie but could be listened to on it's own for sure. If you follow the link to the artist page above you can here a great medley with the songs of the album.

The sound of this album is great and I am not surprised to learn that the brilliant Simon KÃÂ¶lle (film composer, Za FrÃÂ»mi, Musterion, Abnocto, etc.) has done the master. The album is the best so far from the Tjernberg brothers. You should relley check this one out.